Rick Perry vs. Barack Obama
The campaign has begun

And in the "Now that nobody cares we can let the cat out of the bag" department, the GOP announced today that Santorum had actually won Iowa, not Romney, but the GOP decided to call it a draw because they couldn't find enough lost votes to make Romney win.

Perhaps they could check with Florida.

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
—- Mark Twain

The US Republican candidates' debate in Florida quickly devolved into a horror show of absurdities on Thursday night as candidates argued about immigration and moon colonies. Mitt Romney was branded the winner, but the real losers were the viewers, the truth and politics in general.

... For 120 minutes they "debated" the "hot topics," producing sound bites but offering no insight into how these men would cope with the enormous challenges facing the US. The most important topic for voters, the economy, wasn't addressed at all.

At the end, the commentators declared Romney the winner (because he bit the hardest) and Gingrich the loser (because he didn't bite back hard enough). Santorum was termed the "new" challenger (because he attacked everyone), and Paul became the funny uncle. But the real loser was the political system.

No mention of the economy? Wow.

"If you lose all hope, you can always find it again." ― Richard Ford, The Sportswriter

Funny thing --if you eliminate all federal spending except defense, Medicare, social security, and interest on the debt... the US budget barely balances. This is not realistic; in particular it includes eliminating Republican priorites like the department of homeland security and some political non-starters like eliminating veterans benefits.

Yet Republicans claim they want a balanced budget amendment. That would presumably mean balanced budgets now (not 10-20 years down the road under optimistic projections). And they want this while cutting taxes dramatically and increasing defense spending. Oh, and without any Medicare changes for folks currently 55 or older.

No sooner had the Florida primary ended that Romney snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - at least against anyone human running against him - with this comment...

Quote

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, confident after his Florida primary victory, ended up inviting criticism Wednesday when he said he's "not concerned about the very poor" because they have an "ample safety net."

Or, to paraphrase,

Advisor: The peasants have no bread.
Romney: If they're not rich, screw 'em.

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
—- Mark Twain

I heard the full quote, and the characterization placed on it by those attacking him is a distortion....just as was the quote attributed to Marie Antoinette...let them eat cake wasn't as dismissive as it sounds....the word 'cake' has a significantly different connotation to us than it did to her audience.

I think one of the reasons politicans sound so false and inane to literate observers is that they have to constantly worry about deceitful critics quote-mining......if they ever say what they really mean, in a nuanced statement, all of the context will be omitted when the sound-bite is played or the attack ad run.

Politics is the race to the gutter and it demeans everyone who participates whenever the money speaks....your campaign finance laws are an abomination to anyone who wants to see an informed democracy rather than election by sheeple. It's (regrettably) not that there are many better examples to look at....perhaps the scandanavian countries might have a legitimate claim....maybe even germany....it's more that the world would like to look to the US as an example of the possible. As it is, the platitudes of your presidents about US values and liberty and democracy come across as hypocritical as well as platitudinous.

I am NOT claiming moral superiority...far from it....the bones of your system are good....it's the impact of money plus a woeful adherence to 'exceptionalism' that seems to create the quagmire. The money means that the rich control (most) elections (hence the phenonomen of much of the middle class consistently supporting politicians whose every action is designed to transfer ever increasing wealth from the middle class to the rich), and the exceptionalism operates to blind its believers to the possibility that other nations can set examples to be followed...despite its many strengths, the US lags way behind many countries in such basic matters as life expectancy, infant mortality, religious tolerance, gender issues and so on.

I know...it's easy to be a critic from afar and I surely don't claim that canadians wouldn't be as bad if we were americans. And as a kid growing up in the rubble of the British Empire, similar traits were apparent, at least historically, in the attitudes of the ruling elite in the UK.

'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari

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